It’s Not Just Physical—Mindful Fitness

Mindful fitness is an important part of aging healthfully and involves exercises that cultivate unity between your mind and your body. Among the many exercises you learn about here are basic yoga, tai chi, martial arts, and meditation--all of which combine physical exercise with deliberate breathing and mental training.

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Learn the game of pushing hands with a partner, an essential pillar of tai chi chuan. This exercise will increase your sensitivity and understanding as well as your martial prowess. The secret: instead of focusing on how to defeat the opponent, a tai chi master focuses on recreating harmony.

Yoga can lead to a healthier heart by providing a transition from a more sedentary lifestyle to a more active one. Trace the steps that will help you gradually build your yoga practice. Learn two new breathing exercises together with asanas that include warrior 1, knee-to-chest, and bridge.

Movements in tai chi are graceful, balanced, and unhurried, and this is accomplished through mindful awareness of your body, thoughts, and emotions. Mindfulness is an essential element of tai chi and a vital tool for a harmonious life. Use this awareness as you learn the next two movements of the…

Explore the world of qigong, an Eastern practice that focuses on slow, deliberate movement integrated with key breathing exercises to increase your mindfulness. With this session, you'll learn how to tap into the healthy flow of your internal energy--and encourage the balance of opposing forces within your body.

Maintaining core strength and balance is essential for maintaining our physical independence as we age. In this session, focus on a series of yoga and Pilates exercises--performed both in a chair and on the floor--designed to improve your posture and strengthen the muscles in your core and back.

The tension we accumulate every day tightens the muscles in the upper body, making it hard to breathe. Practice a mini yoga class that highlights mindful breathing to relieve this stress. Then add three new asanas to your yoga routine: warrior 2, bound angle, and downward facing dog.

These 24 half-hour lessons, taught by an International Master Tai Chi Instructor, take you deeply into the practice, focusing on a routine known as the Yang-style 40-movement form. Known as moving meditation, tai chi is part exercise, part relaxation and is accessible to everyone, regardless of age of the current…

Explore the history of silk and its connection to the principles of tai chi. Learn exercises to develop the motions of silk reeling and silk pulling, which are advanced techniques hidden within many form movements. Feel this smoothness and connection as you continue with the form with turn body and…

How you respond to the illnesses and pain that come with advancing age can lead to drastically different outcomes in your ability to maintain or rebuild your physical health. This episode includes exercises that can reduce pain and improve function.

Welcome to the guan, or tai chi studio. Start your journey on the path of mastery by discovering how taijiquan is a complex system that weaves together martial artistry, the pursuit of health and longevity, and the philosophy of harmony and balance. Then, practice several stances that you will use…

Tai chi relies on continuous, harmonious motion, or flow. Maintaining your physical flow supports your ability to connect with universal flow-the exchange of ideas, information, and energy that creates new things in the world. Watch Mr. Ross demonstrate flow with the tai chi staff, and review all of the form…